THE NIGHT OF COUNTING THE YEARS Movie Review

al-Mummia

This extraordinary modern classic of Egyptian cinema is based on a true event: the discovery of ancient treasures near Thebes in 1881. Perhaps the most suspenseful and disturbing of all cinematic attempts to equate the plundering of a nation's treasures with the violation of its soul, The Night of Counting the Years centers on the inevitable conflicts that arise when a mountain tribe is caught in a mysterious and unholy struggle between archeologists, antique dealers, and the ever-present voices of the distant past. Egyptian director Shadi Abdelsalam's fantastic, spellbinding imagery seduces us with what appear at first to be mirages—a ship sailing through the desert, human figures that emerge from stone—but soon we realize that the only illusions are those we have created to rationalize the gutting of a nation's center. This is strong, unforgettable stuff, more haunting than all the Mummy films wrapped together.

NEXT STOP … Navigators of the Desert, Cairo Station, Landscape in the Mist

1969 102m/C Zouzou El Hakim, Ahmad Hegazi, Nadia Loutfy, Ahmed Marei; D: Chadi Abdel Salam; W: Chadi Abdel Salam, Mario Nascimbene; C: Abdel Aziz Fahmy. NYR